RI rebuffs plans for rotating OPEC chief

RI rebuffs plans for rotating OPEC chief

Dow Jones, Jakarta

Indonesia's Energy Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro said on Friday he doesn't agree with an idea floated by Iran to rotate the secretary-general of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) between the group's 11 members.

OPEC is due to appoint a new secretary-general in December to replace Alvaro Silva Calderon, but the group was unable to reach consensus at its meeting last week on a new candidate for the post

Iran's oil minister suggested this week that the post be rotated alphabetically through the members every three years.

But Purnomo, who will take the presidency of OPEC beginning Jan. 1, said he was opposed to the plan.

"The secretary-general isn't decided based on alphabetical order of the OPEC members, but the position is elected through an unanimous decision," Purnomo told reporters.

OPEC members have to vote unanimously on the new secretary- general, a process fraught with politics and historic rivalries.

OPEC's current list of possible candidates for the post comprise incumbent Calderon, Kuwait's Adnan Shihab-Eldin, research director at the OPEC Secretariat in Vienna, and Iran's former U.N. envoy, Hadi Aejad-Husseinian.

An Iranian hasn't held the position since Fuad Rouhani, the group's first secretary-general, held the post from 1961-64.